U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Office of Survey Methods Research

Abstract

Catherine M. Kazanowski (1995)
"Measuring Customer Service At The Bureau Of Labor
Statistics," Proceedings of the Section on Survey
Research Methods, American Statistical Association.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) serves a variety of
customers — academic institutions, the media, other
government agencies, private companies, private citizens,
just to name a few — both directly and indirectly. While the
satisfaction of all these customers is important to us, our
direct customers, because of our on-going contact with them,
are a much more accessible source of meaningful dialog on the
subject of customer satisfaction. These direct customers
include people on our mailing lists, those who access our
data electronically, and those who make personal requests to
us. It is the satisfaction level of customers requesting
information either by telephone or mail that we are measuring
with the BLS Customer Service Survey. This paper will
describe various aspects of the survey, provide a summary of
survey results, and discuss lessons learned and future steps.
The BLS Customer Service Survey was developed to provide data
to set goals, measure, and demonstrate the effect of efforts
to improve the Bureau's information dissemination
services. Survey measurements refer to the manner in which we
provide information, not the quality or appropriateness of
the information provided. The survey was also undertaken in
response to the President's Executive Order No. 12862,
issued to all federal agencies about setting customer service
standards. This executive order requires agencies to survey
their customers in order to determine the kind and quality of
services they want and their level of satisfaction with
existing services.